Chapter 46 MICELI

Róise's words hit me with the power of a blow from my brother's closed fist.

I'm showing her my trust in an attempt to gain hers without acknowledging the one thing I have to do for her to consider me trustworthy.

Keep the fucking vows I make to her.

Neither Sev, nor I, questioned my future wife quitting school. To us, it was a given. A necessary sacrifice for the good of our family. After all, what does she need with a Fine Arts degree she can't use?

But it's not about the practical use of her degree, is it? It's about my fiancée's ability to trust my word when I give it.

Cazzo . There is only one reply I can give and maintain my honor.

"Then you finish your degree." Even if it means sending a dozen security guards with her every day.

"How is that going to work?"

I like the question because she's not assuming it's going to be easy. I don't like it because of the distrust I see in her eyes when she asks. Like she doesn't believe I'll follow through.

Why should she? I almost broke my promise to her already. I don't apologize because what's the point of I'm sorry ?

It's just words. Actions speak the language that can be believed.

"Are there any courses you can take online?" I start a mental list of what needs to be in place before she returns to college in the fall .

"Uncle Brogan just assumed that if I was going to go to school after we married, I could take all of my classes online." Her pretty lips twist in a grimace. "It doesn't work that way with my degree."

Controlling the urge to grab her and fuck her senseless that's been riding me tighter than her body against my back on the way here, I ask, "Are you saying there aren't any?"

"No. There are two. "

She's looked into it. Good. She's not unreasonable. I knew that the day she put her bloody thumbprint next to mine on the alliance contract.

For whatever reason, she wants to get a degree for a career she can never have. But she's willing to figure out how to make that happen within the framework of our world.

More importantly Róise wants assurance that I will keep my word to her.

I will in every way but one.

She's not divorcing me. Ever.

But that's not something we're going to discuss right now. Because in reality, it will never be an issue and letting a hypothetical derail her trust in me would be stupid.

Which I am not.

This woman is fiercely loyal to her family, her love for them so deep, she's sacrificing her own freedom for the sake of her younger cousin.

No way is she ever going to relegate herself to the role of half-time parent.

I know it and one day she will allow herself to know it too. Considering how stubborn she is, that will be sometime after the birth of our third child.

Right now, she needs the idea of divorce to not feel trapped by the marriage that will be permanent for both of us.

"If you can do any of your schoolwork, study groups, etc. away from campus, that needs to be arranged too."

"You mean like my senior project? That actually requires time in a developmental studio."

"I'll have one installed in our home."

"Uh, that's overkill for something I will never use again. But I'll find a studio to rent that will be easier to secure than a college campus."

"There's no such thing as overkill to keep you safe." If I were her uncle, there would be underwater security on the shoreline twenty-four, seven.

"You are only going to get worse about my security detail after we get married," she says morosely. "Aren't you?"

"Do you really need to ask? "

She shakes her head. "Yeah, no. Anyway, I'll ask my senior project group to meet at your place, but if they don't want to go into the City, we can find someplace on Long Island that meets your security requirements."

"It will be our place." For some reason, it's important she acknowledges that.

Her shrug is not the agreement I'm looking for.

"We'll make it work," I vow.

"By make it work, you mean…"

"You'll have a security detail of eight people if not twelve." Getting the college to accommodate that kind of entourage will require offering the bribe she's so opposed to.

Róise's mouth opens closes, opens again, and closes again with a snap. Finally, she burst out, "Why so many?"

"Because a don's wife has to be protected. You will become a target the minute our engagement is announced, but it will only get worse once I become don." She'll be vulnerable to attack in a way she never would as the wife of an underboss.

Róise goes through the sequence of opening her mouth and closing it several times again, shaking her head and nodding by turns in between.

"Don's wife?" she squeaks, a note of hysteria creeping into her voice.

"When my brother becomes godfather, I will become the Don of the Genovese."

"But I thought Don Caruso…that he was both the don and the godfather."

"He is. But Sev believes that a godfather needs to represent more than one family. As a don, even the godfather will have a preference for one family over another. "

"You can't tell me your brother won't always have a preference for the Genovese."

"We are his family, but his time and energy will be focused on the Cosa Nostra as a whole and not the Genovese Family."

"You'll be the don?" she asks as if she cannot believe the words.

"Yes."

She frowns, crossing her arms. "My uncle didn't say anything about this."

"That's because he does not know. No one knows. Except maybe Catalina." Sev doesn't keep secrets from his wife.

Róise's arms drop to her sides, her expression filling with confusion. "Why are you telling me?"

Good question. Since she already all but agreed to the earlier wedding if she got to finish school, I didn't have to tell her about what's going to happen and risk her revealing our plans to her uncle before we're ready .

"Remember when I said the trust starts somewhere" I look around the studio significantly and back to the woman I am going to marry. "This is where it starts for me."

"You trust me not to tell anyone, not even my cousins, about your studio and the future plans you and Don De Luca have."

"Yes." I want this woman to be my wife, not a glorified mistress with a ring on her finger.

I don't want love but I do want a partnership. For that to happen, I have to be able to trust her. And this is a good test to see if the loyalty she gives so fiercely to her family will extend to me.

"I still don't see why you're so adamant about moving the wedding forward. The engagement is as good as marriage to guarantee the blood alliance until I give birth to our first child. That won't be for at least almost three years after we get married."

We agreed that she could have two years of birth control after the marriage. My assumption she would be willing to chuck that requirement was as shortsighted as believing she'd quit college without protest.

Róise might be over ten years younger than me, but she's got a will of iron and a sense of fair play to match it.

"To solidify my place with la famiglia as their don, I need to show the stability of marriage and provide an heir." Otherwise, I risk one of the Genovese capos making a play to take my place.

It damn near happened to Sev and he was my father's chosen heir. Fucking Lorenzo Ricci. He won't be an issue very soon, but he's not the only man from my father's generation who doesn't want a boss twenty years younger than him.

"But—" Róise is back to looking at me like I'm the devil's minion.

"I am not going to fuck with your birth control," I promise her. "If you choose to stick to the terms of the contract, that's your decision. But your safety and mine will increase after you give birth to our first child."

I'm not going to sugarcoat it. She deserves the truth.

"But why? I don't understand how having a child will make you safer."

"Sev faced a lot of pushback when he became don, even after my father had made it clear he expected Sev to take his place one day. Only part of that pushback was the fact he was young. The rest came from the instability his lack of a wife and heir gave to the future of the Genovese Family."

"But he's not even forty! He has plenty of time to have children."

"The first one is on his way. My sister-in-law is pregnant." And the timing is excellent for Severu's bid for godfather.

If a don needs to show the stability of a family, a godfather even more so.

"You're seriously telling me the capos might not accept you as don if you're not married?"

"That is one fear, yes. But there is also the very real consideration that at the age of 33, if I do not have an hier soon, I will be unable to train him adequately to take over as don before my death."

"Sheesh, morbid much?" She turns from me and walks toward the kitchen, taking off her jacket as she goes.

When she reaches the island, she tosses her jacket on top and then hops up to sit with her legs dangling in front of my paint chests. "What if our child doesn't want to be a don? What if our first child is a girl? What if she does want to be dona?"

"I have already said that if our child chooses a different path, I will do my best to help them on it, and if our first child is a girl the same applies. If she's anywhere near as strong-willed as her mother, she'll convince the Genovese to accept her claim to the role when the time comes."

"Okay, let me get this straight." Róise leans back on her elbows, her stance fucking provocative. "The alliance is for Don De Luca to become the godfather? But the marriage happening now is to smooth the path for you to become don?"

"Yes."

"And if I agree to moving the wedding date forward, I will still finish my degree?"

"Yes."

"Okay. Can I see your art?" Her legs kick back and forth negligently, never quite hitting my paint chests with her heels.

Shrugging out of my own leather jacket, I prowl toward her. "Are you sure that's what you want right now? To see my art?"

"Why? Do you have something else in mind?"

"Stripping those jeans from your sexy legs and eating out that fine pussy."

Her pupils dilate with desire. "You promise I get to see the paintings after?"

"Yes." It's an easy promise to make.

When I brought her here, I knew that meant sharing my art with Róise.

Right now, there's something else I want to share with her. My hard dick.